


Lay me on the Altar Underground

by Magicalflyingfish



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Magic, Not Beta Read, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 11:07:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28742238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magicalflyingfish/pseuds/Magicalflyingfish
Summary: Under normal circumstances, it was pretty easy to keep people in the dark about magic. Karma had been doing that for years.Throw in an incident on the mountain, a giant yellow octopus, and seemingly a target on his and his magical community's backs into the mix and things might get trickier to handle. A lot trickier.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	1. Y Plentyn Anlwcus

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> This is my first fic, so be prepared for the upcoming garbage and proceed at your own risk...

"Again." He earned a smack from the staff, the man's voice above him cruel and cold. "Your flame is too weak. Don't let your mind be as weak as your body."

"Yes, Papa." The little boy managed to keep the quiver out of his voice. He cupped his hands in front of him, looking up at his father for approval. The man nodded curtly, telling him to go ahead before he lost the little patience he had left. "Tân!"

The flame flickered for a few seconds, waving around between his palms. He did it! There was an actual fire! "Papa! Papa! Lo-... oh...."

It spluttered out the moment he lost concentration, not even a whiff of smoke left. Slowly turning his head back up, small frame trembling, he let out a whimper. "P-Pa-?"

A loud crack filled the room as the staff slammed into the side of his head, quickly followed by the thump of his body against the floor. His vision blurred in and out, ears ringing and deaf to all other noise. He was in pain, yes, so much pain, but at the moment, all he could feel was anger.

"You idiot! It's just one! Simple! Spell!" His mouth was moving, but he couldn't hear it. He knew he was yelling anyway. The snarl was practically a permanent fixture on his face.

He was always. yelling. "Are you even listening to me?! Just focus for once in your path-!"

Well, you know what? He could do that too.

"Tân!" The boy screamed. Fire burst out of his hands, a roaring flame that engulfed all his vision.

Papa was still screaming, an odd scent in the air. But, the child didn't care. He couldn't hear it anyway.

* * *

Heavy footsteps pounded through the forest, twigs snapping and leaves crunching beneath their owner's feet. The air was hot, unusual for the night, but each breath brought a puff of air that lingered for far too long. His chest squeezed, his heart beating erratically, and every muscle in his body cramped with exertion. He couldn't stop though, not with the danger so close behind him.

The trees broke, and he entered the clearing, making it to the edge of the cliff with the last of his strength. He collapsed to his knees, fingers digging deep through the dirt. He had just enough time to create a barrier before the creature could slam into him, watching as it bounced back, skidding through the ground.

He took just a second to take in its appearance, simultaneously preparing the next spell with his hands. The thing, an Oni, was huge, horns long and twisted with pointed tips. Its skin was green and scaled, almost bush-like in appearance, teeth long and brown. Whether from a lack of toothpaste or if that was their usual color, Karma did not know. What he did know was that he wanted it dead. Deceased. Departed. Gone to the afterlife. Seven feet below for good measure.

It got up, ready to charge, Karma's hands quickening as he internally pleaded not to mess up any of the movements. On the last motion, fingers interlocked and palms facing outward, the creature leaped forward, and he dropped the shield. "Tafellu!"

The Oni continued to fly forward, and Karma braced for the impact of claws and teeth. Instead, though, the slap of meat, its body split into thick slices, met him. He would have let out a sigh of relief, seeing as he hadn't been mauled into an unrecognizable pile of meat, but he had other concerns.

One such was that sticky, goopy, blue blood covered him from head to toe. The next was that he was pretty sure some was in his mouth, which was both disgusting and potentially toxic. And finally, his biggest concern was that he was currently tumbling down the edge of the cliff.

At least he hadn't fallen near the tree, where it just dropped off. He rolled down the slope, desperately trying to grab onto a hold as the flying dirt and the pain from each impact blinded him. By the time he stopped, his stomach slamming into a larger rock, his vision had changed from black to white with agony.

He didn't know how much time passed before he managed to regain his senses, only that the sun was rising and the goopy blood was starting to dry. He should probably clean that up, not to mention the dirt that was seeping into his wounds. "Gl-glanhau...."

With the stick and grime off, he admittedly felt a lot better. Still in pain and stuck on a cliff ledge, but at least he was clean. With a moan, he pushed himself up into a seated position, bringing a sharp pain through his arm and belly. Something was definitely broken, for certain his arm, and maybe a rib or two, and he just knew his stomach was going to be purple. He doubted he'd be able to climb up the edge in this state, and he was nowhere skilled enough to heal this. Cuts and scrapes, sure, internal bleeding and broken bones? Absolutely not.

Did he still have his phone? He was going to be really annoyed if it fe- here it is! It was an old Nokia flip phone, one of the few pieces of technology that didn't break around him. It was a miracle that he had only damaged a few of his classmates' phones with his presence. Pretty good, if you asked him. Fingers trembling, he dialed the emergency number Karasuma had given them. Barely halfway through the second ring, and the agent picked up.

"Karma? What's wrong?"

"I fell off the cliff." He stated calmly. There was no point in freaking out now. "I think I broke my arm. Do you think you could come and get me before class?"

He heard the agent sputter on the other end. "What do you mean you fell off the cliff?! Before class?! I'm coming over right now, and you're coming to the hospital!"

"If you try taking me to the hospital, I'll throw myself off completely." He couldn't go to a hospital, too much technology, too many people's lives depending on it. Despite his, ahem, violent tendencies, he didn't want to be responsible for the deaths of a bunch of hospital patients. They already thought he was suicidal, so he might as well use it. "I'm fine. You don't have to rush yourself."

"...I'm on my way, give me fifteen minutes." The man sounded like he was running, not that he was out of breath. It was five in the morning! How was he already that close?! He lived in Tokyo! Wait, if he was that close, that meant he'd get here before dark! Not good, not good at all!

"Don't go through the forest." It wasn't light enough to be safe yet, the sun not even peaking out. The other just hummed in acknowledgment, and the call ended with a click. Karma just hoped he would follow his directions. Fighting off another Oni was what he did not want to do today. One was more than enough.

Why were there even Oni on this mountain? The principal was a part of the White Council, for crying out loud! Kunugigaoka was part of his jurisdiction to protect! When he told Karma that part of his punishment was to guard the mountain for the first month he was back at school, he had thought he just meant a couple of little creatures. Maybe even a couple of weaker yokai. Not a freaking Oni that rivaled Koro-sensei in height and Karasuma-sensei in strength! He would complain, either to the wizard himself or to the council, but that would only result in more monsters appearing or just brushed off as necessary training.

Necessary training, yeah, right. The council was just a mixture of cowards and power-happy wizards that did as they pleased. So what if he was only fourteen? It wasn't like they hadn't put him through similar training before under the man. He could probably get away with cutting off his limbs as a training exercise, and they wouldn't even bat an eye.

"Karma?" For a moment, just a moment, he felt hope. The footsteps sounded like Karasuma-Sensei's, and the voice was so so close. Like a parrot, almost perfect, but not quite right. The agent's tone was even. This voice lilted at the end of his name. Wrong. Dangerous.

Sensei had gone through the forest.

The footsteps grew louder with the parroting of his name. Oh, how he did not want to deal with this. All he could hope was that his teacher wasn't laying dead somewhere in the middle of the forest. "Karma? Karma? Is that you, Karma? Karma?! Karma!"

Karma pushed himself back further against the rock just as it reached the ledge. The fake-Karasuma's eyes popped over the edge, eyes devoid of life as it stared at him. That wasn't what unnerved him; that wasn't what made his stomach drop. He was far too used to those eyes, whether from other monsters or his reflection in the mirror. No, it was the unhinged jaw, the canines of a saber-tooth tiger sprouting out of his mouth. It stared right at him, blood trailing down the teeth as it let out a soft "Karma? Are you okay?"

"Just peachy." The red-head snarked.

And then it lunged.


	2. Y Cadno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look! I found another way to procrastinate on my schoolwork!

He had just enough time to roll forward, the creature swooping above him and landing on the rock he’d been leaning against. It stood perched with all four limbs, dark eyes staring him down. Karasuma’s natural stare was intimidating, but this one felt like he was just a piece of meat. Prey. “Karma?”

“Yes, Sensei?” Maybe playing along would work? At the very least, it would provide a few moments for him to observe the creature as well. What kind was it? Or was it just inside his teacher? Had he at least read about it before?

His teacher’s fingers had morphed into claws, digging into the stone as deep gorges. His chin and nose were more pointed than usual, hard features now sharp and cunning, kind of like a dog or cat. Maybe if Karma didn’t know Karasuma that well, or if they were walking down the street, he wouldn’t have noticed. Even so, it was still clearly a very new shapeshifter to have those differences. That or it was a possession. He had read that sometimes the features of the person would change as well.

The possibility of something possessing his teacher complicated things. Killing someone with magic was a big no-no, both in magical and mortal law. Japan would never accept an excuse of ‘he was possessed and trying to kill me.’ Not that they’d get the chance to try him, the white council would have his head on a platter before he could reach the bottom of the mountain. Violations of one of the seven laws were no joke.

He knew that far too well.

“Are you okay?” It parroted. The voice, too. Even a mediocre shifter would have gotten that part right. Sure, vocal cords were tricky for new shifters, at least according to his books. However, that was with actually making the words, not this. Something wasn’t right. Either it was a child shifter just trying to have some fun, or it was trying to trick him into thinking that. The idea of having to fight a child made him feel a little guilty.

Not too bad, though. It was trying to kill him and possibly already had killed his teacher. Creatures that killed things for fun weren’t ones he could sympathize with easily. Plus, Karma happened to like Karasuma-sensei. “I told you, just peachy. Are you okay?”

“Just peachy!” It replied. Oh, Karma did not like hearing his voice, or a caricature of it, come out of his teacher’s mouth. That was just creepy. At least he knew for sure it was a shapeshifter rather than a possession case. If it had been the latter, the voice would have stayed similar to Sensei’s. There was a bright side to everything!

“In that case, mind helping me back up?” He pointed his unbroken arm above him. It was worth a shot. “That’s what you came here to do, right?”

It just stared at him, eyes narrowing and fixing onto his injured arm. “Peachy?”

The smile on its face widened, revealing pointed, fox-like teeth behind the sabertooth-fangs. Ah, so it was a kitsune.

A kitsune. Oh, this was bad. Very bad. It didn’t look like it was playing anymore. “Yeah, just peachy. You know, like, I’m good?”

“Peachy. Good.” Kitsune-Karasuma nodded slowly, taking in the information. They sat there for a few moments longer. The kitsune stared him down as he fought the urge to squirm under its gaze. It tilted its head, starting with another echo of Karma’s voice before turning into a deep growl. “I’m peachy! Liar! Liar! Liar!”

Ah, so it wasn’t a younger kitsune, not a child. Then again, young was a relative term. Kitsunes had to be at least a hundred years old to shift into a human. Far, far longer to mimic a specific person. With that much experience, it had to know how to transform without keeping so many revealing traits! That meant it was purposely using its voice wrong. It was all a ruse. “I’m the liar? You’re the one pretending to be one-tailed!”

With a guttural snarl, it launched itself off the rock, claws outstretched and ready to strike. Oh, boy, did those look sharp, not to mention the gouges in the rock. He really needed to learn that provoking magical creatures wasn’t the best idea. He should stick to people, or, you know, pay attention to the fact he was about to be mauled to death. With the claws barely a foot from his face, he crossed his arms over his chest with a shout.

“Amddiffyn!” It crashed into the shield and skidded back through the dirt. The barrier, looking like a wall of distorted glass, wavered. He had maybe two strikes before it fell completely, and the kitsune was already getting posed for another.

Karma wished Karasuma’s defense moves translated into magic, for he had never been good with defensive spells. The principal always had told him that it would come to bite him. Maybe he should have practiced more, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. His broken arm could wait. Right now, he just had to get away.

Turning around, he leaped up and grabbed a protruding rock with his good arm, legs flailing to find footholds. The next impact came just as he got his feet situated, the knee opposite pressing up to his chest. He had to move faster. With a frantic push, he swung the broken arm forward and the other foot up to where his hand had been.

Fresh pain erupted, traveling from his arm through his body as another crack resounded, and he gripped the top of the ledge. He didn’t stop, actually grateful for the principal and his father’s training methods for once. With a pained whimper, he gave a final push with his leg and pull with his arm, and got his torso over the ledge. If he could make it to the tree… line…?

The treeline that wasn’t there. In fact, nothing was in front of him. Or below. What should have been there, a mixture of soil, dirt, and rocks, had been replaced by just a vast, pitch-black pit. He stood there for another moment before deciding to lean forward with his eyes squeezed shut, his arm reaching out before him.

His hand curled into the void, grass, and dirt situating itself under his fingernails. Ah, so it was still there, it was just that he couldn’t see it. It was just an illusion. But, why? What was that his book said? “Ah, that’s right. You can’t actually hurt me, can you!”

“Does the moon wax and wane?” A voice hummed in a deep cadence. Karma opened his eyes, the scene unchanged. “Your eyes decide its fate. You choose to believe what you wish.” 

The void disappeared, replaced instead with the forest below. Karma jerked back with a yelp, falling and slamming the ledge he’d just climbed up. Ow. It snickered from above, the choppy cackle unfitting for the voice. “The waxing and waning appear to be true to you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I see, I fell for it. Now, what did you do to Sensei?” Karma groaned, both from pain and annoyance. He was just lucky he hadn’t hit his head. Trying to decode what the kitsune was saying was hard enough without a concussion. Or did he already have one? He couldn’t tell.

“Mmm, the waterfall is much more beautiful from the bank than the base!” The illusion dropped, and a white, five-tailed fox jumped down to join him. It had no business looking so amused! “The clock shouldn’t tick too much further from the moon. Don’t let it leave your mind that babies shouldn’t stray too far from the mother’s cradle. Not every bottle of milk offered is as free of poison as mine.”

The red-head spluttered, and the kitsune disappeared before he could respond. What was that supposed to mean?! “I’m not a baby… Tsuki-Yako!”

He could practically hear a faint laugh as he collapsed back against the rock wall. The sun was up now, the forest and buildings below painted with a soft glow, the hills no longer closing in. He could breathe, well, if it weren’t for his increasing awareness of his sore ribs and abdomen. Nonetheless, he could at least relax a bit.

It wasn’t long before he could hear the squelch of dew-tipped grass with Karasuma’s approach. Poor Sensei sounded out of breath, something that didn’t even happen at the end of PE. Just what had the kitsune been having him do? Karma bet he probably would have wanted to see it, whatever it was. “Karma?”

“I’m down here!” Karma called out, wincing at the stabbing sensation in his chest. Within seconds, Karasuma had clambered down the ledge to kneel in front of him.

“Your face is too pale.” Karasuma frowned, taking in his condition. “Do you think you can hold onto my back? I could carry you from the front if not, but if it wouldn’t be as comfortable.”

“I can hold on.” Karma grimaced. Holding on by himself was going to hurt, but he wasn’t going scrape along the rocks again. Karasuma just looked at him with a doubtful expression, eyes shifting from his broken arm to the way he was cradling his stomach and to his face. “It won’t take long, right?”

“No, but I don’t want you to fall if it gets to be too much.” The agent sighed, turning around so that Karma was facing his back and kneeling. You’d think he’d have more faith in him! Then again, he was pretty injured, so his concern was understandable. “Hop on and hold on tight with your legs and keep your arm below my arms.”

Karma nodded even though he couldn’t see him and latched onto his teacher’s torso with a slight whimper. Yep, his body was disagreeing with this. “R-ready.”

The agent was silent the rest of the way up, moving slowly and smoothly to avoid jostling him. Karma appreciated the smooth aspect, the slow not as much. At least he wasn’t trying to talk, though he doubted he would have been able to respond anyway. That was one of the things he liked about Karasuma-sensei. The man didn’t want to talk like Koro-sensei or his classmates.

It didn’t take too long for them to get up, even the climb up over the ledge being gentle. Once they were a couple of feet away, he lowered his legs as Karasuma bent his knees until he touched the ground. “Thanks.”

“It was no problem, and my apologies for how long it took me to get here.” The man bowed his head. “Would you like me to look you over before or after we get to the class? I’m more partial to doing it now.”

“If we go to the class first, can you tell me what happened on the way here?” If they stopped now, with the adrenaline wearing off, Karma didn’t think he’d be able to stay awake much longer. “Why did it take so long?”

“...I think that should wait, but we can get to the class first.” Ah, so he wasn’t going to spill. Boo. At least they were walking, even if he was getting the occasional glances of concern. He didn’t need any pity. He was used to this. “Do you need me to carry you? Your breathing is irregular.”

Was it? Was he really that out of it? Not wanting to answer, he took a moment to look at the forest, at the roots sticking out of the ground and the winding path. Ugh, that did not look fun. Karasuma seemed to take his lack of response as a yes, picking him up and starting to cradle him bridle-style. How embarrassing.

“Embarrassing or not, you’re injured, and I’m not having you collapse because you decided stubborn.” Karasuma scoffed. Oops. Had he said that out loud? Wow, he really must need a nap. “Yes. To both statements. Don’t fall asleep, though. I believe you have a concussion.”

Karma chose not to respond to that, instead pressing his lips together so he wouldn’t spill out all his thoughts. Even if it weren’t for the concussion, he would have been tired. He’d been out here for hours! Speaking of the time, he was also kind of hungry. Maybe Koro-sensei would let him have a snack from the staff room? They’d probably either call his father or the principal, depending on which contact they clicked first, and neither of them would get him anything.

He hoped it would be Asano. His father was going to be angry with him enough, and at least the principal would help him before the punishment. The training was going to be brutal once he healed enough to start again. The man would probably even speed up the process just for that.

Was that a good or a bad thing? Karma would s- “Karma? Are you still with us?”

“Mm-hmm.” Oh, look, there was Koro-sensei.

“Good, good. I believe that I can fix your arm and ribs but wish to ask permission before attempting. There’s nothing I can do about the bruising or your concussion, I’m afraid. Would you like me to try, or would you rather go to the hospital?” He had healing abilities beyond self-regeneration? Interesting.

“I don’t like hospitals.” He slurred. The faster this got over with, the sooner he could sleep. Besides, getting to know more about his abilities would be useful. Koro-sensei chuckled as his head lolled to the side. He didn’t want to look at someone laughing while he was this vulnerable. “No.”

“I’m sorry, I just find your dislike of hospitals amusing.” At least he seemed to realize he thought he was laughing at the injuries. Still rude. “This isn’t going to feel nice, so I’m going to put you to sleep first.”

“Sure.” How was he going to do that? Was Karasuma-sensei still here? Not that he didn’t trust the octopus, ah, well, he supposed he didn’t. Where was his point? Ah, right. “Where’s Karasuma-Sensei?”

“I’m watching. This information could be useful.” Right next to him. How did he not notice that? It wasn’t bringing him as much comfort as he thought it would. Even he couldn’t do much against Koro-sensei if needed. “Octopus, I think you should start. He looks nervous.”

“Alright. See you in-” Wait! He didn’t want… want to… want to what? “-a few minutes!”

His eyes fluttered shut, and he plunged into darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, my knowledge of Japanese mythology is very limited so I used google for the Kitsune and tried to make it talk in Scandinavian kennings. The character voices felt kind of off, and I tried to make the ending more choppy but I don't know how well it actually came out.  
> Thank you for reading! :)


	3. Mewn dwylo diogel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is pretty much just a filler/bridge into the next one.

“You’re awake! I made you some breakfast! It’s rice with fish pieces!” The yellow figure was blurry, darting around him with waving tentacles. Whether he was blurry because of the concussion or because he just woke up, Karma wasn’t sure yet. “There’s also a smoothie if you don’t feel like chewing.”

“Th-thanks….” He pushed himself up slowly, careful not to make his head spin too much. It was bright outside. Too bright. Koro-sensei seemed to get the idea and pulled the blinds down. “Wh- wh-? Eh?”

“Karasuma decided to hold PE early today so that I could make sure you were okay when you woke up,” Koro-sensei explained, his voice much softer than before. “How about you eat first? Then, we need to talk. I’m rather concerned about what happened.”

“Smoothie?” He didn’t even want to try chewing the other until his headache went away. He reached out his previously injured arm, testing it. There was still a lot of bruising, but none of the pain from before, other than some soreness, nor even a scar. Same with his ribs. Impressive. “How did you do this?”

“I assume you mean your arm, not your drink?” Koro-sensei joked, thinking for a moment as he handed his student the drink. “Due to my superspeed, I also process things much faster than you do. Because of that, I can control my fine movements a lot better, like repairing bone shards without affecting any nearby nerves. Additionally, my cells can adapt to the human body quite well.”

“That’s cool.” Karma nodded, taking a sip of the drink. Strawberry. “This tastes good.”

“I’m glad you like it.” Koro-sensei hummed. “How are your head and stomach feeling?”

“My stomach is sore. Head doesn’t hurt as bad as when I woke up.” How did he make this taste so good?! It was even better than his strawberry milk, and that was his favorite food!

“That’s much better than I expected.” The octopus smiled. Then again, he was always smiling. “Do you want to talk to me about what happened? Or do you want to wait until you finish?”

“We can talk now.” He agreed after another sip. “What about what happened?”

“I suppose we could start with why you were by the cliff in the first place and how you fell and got hurt so badly.” Karma didn’t like how stern the octopus looked without his expression changing. It was unnerving.

“I was just walking around the forest- part of my punishment from the chairman is to clean up any trash that blows in from the main campus or whatever.” Karma scoffed. At least it wasn’t entirely a lie. “I stopped to see the sunset, got scared by one of the animals, and fell over.”

“Is that really why you fell?” Yep. Definitely unnerving. “The second part I wanted to ask about was why you told Karasuma you would jump off if he called the hospital. It’s rather concerning, I must say.”

“I didn’t fall off on purpose if that’s what you mean,” Karma whispered, rubbing his arm and looking away shamefully. “I don’t know why I threatened that. I just really didn’t want to go to the hospital. They’re… scary.”

Koro-sensei stared at him for a few moments longer before sighing. “Alright, I don’t think you’re lying. But, you do know you can come to Karasuma or me, if you ever need to talk, right?”

“I know. Thanks.” He hated how insincere it sounded. Then again, it wasn’t like he could talk to them about it anyway. “Can I go wait in the class? I don’t want to miss math.”

“Of course. Let me walk you down there. I wasn’t able to do anything about your concussion, I’m afraid.” Koro-sensei apologized, carefully helping him stand. The room only spun a little bit. He could handle it. “Karma? Do you need to sit?”

“I’m okay.” He took a few wobbly steps forward, Koro-sensei using his tentacles to steady him. Geez, his body was stiff, even with whatever it was Koro-sensei did. They made it about halfway down the hall before it started to be too much. “I need… I… I….”

“Okay, we’ll stop.” Koro-sensei’s voice came out muddled. His vision was too patchy to make out the tentacles moving around him. Karma felt his knees buckle, but he didn’t fall. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you. How about I go ahead and get you to your seat?”

He couldn’t have even protested if he wanted to, weightless as the octopus carried him the rest of the way to class. Pathetic. He was lucky Koro-sensei was exactly posing a threat right now, if you discounted the fact he was planning on blowing up the earth. Soon enough, he was sitting down in the chair with his head on the desk, which would have probably felt nicer if it didn’t feel like he was going to bend like a wet noodle.

“Uh, Sensei? Is he okay?” Oh, great, his classmates were coming in already.

“He’s alright, just has a little concussion and got dizzy in the hall.” The octopus assured the other student. Who, now that his voice was coming through, he was pretty sure was Nagisa. “Karma, are you okay for me to leave you here?”

“Mmm-hmm. I just need another minute.” At least his voice was back under his control.

The two didn’t move, despite the shuffling of his classmates. At least not until he managed to sit himself up. Nagisa stayed with him a moment longer than Koro-sensei, brow furrowed slightly. Why? Karma didn’t know. “I’m fine.”

“...Okay.” Nagisa looked skeptical, sending him a wary look once he got to his seat. Did he look that bad? Him getting a concussion or injured otherwise was nothing new in Nagisa’s books, so why was he so concerned?

“Alright, class! Today we’re going to be working with the quadratic formula that we worked on yesterday!” Koro-sensei announced from the front, quickly passing out worksheets to each student. It looked like Karma could ignore the lesson for today, seeing that he had trigonometric equations.

Normally, he’d be perfectly happy to have something like this. Then again, normally he’d be able to think. Normally. He knew he knew how to do these, but right now it looked like a foreign language. Even the numbers weren’t registering.

What if he’d gotten like this in the middle of a fight? Well, technically, he had, so, a fight with something aiming to kill him? What if the kitsune had been just a bit more aggressive? What if he’d gotten it while fighting the oni?

He shook his head, ignoring the way his vision spotted as he did so. No use dwelling on that now. He could do that later. Right now, it was time for math.

The pencil shook in his hand as he wrote out the problem, struggling to jog his memory.

Sin… sin? Like, when you did something bad? No, that didn’t sound right. Sin… sin… sine! It was sine. What did sin(e) do again? He was pretty sure it had something to do with circles, but how was he supposed to put that on the graph? Was it the circle points? Where did each one go?  
  
“Ah, Karma?” A tentacle landed on his shoulder, causing him to jolt and reignite the pain in his head. “May I take your paper? We’re moving on to Japanese.”

He tensed. “No.”

“Karma, it’s alright that you didn’t finish it. I didn’t expect you to.” Koro-sensei tried to assure it. “May I please have it? You can work on it tomorrow.”

He didn’t say anything as he held the paper out to the octopus, crumpling it in his fist. He wasn’t throwing a fit. Not at all. Koro-sensei took it calmly, looking down at him. “How about you take another nap? It may help you feel better.”  
  
Some of his classmates were snickering, mainly Terasaka and his group but also a few of the others. He couldn’t be weak. Weak was vulnerable. “I’m fine.”

“Kar-?” Koro-sensei reached the tentacle back over.

“I said I’m fine!” He snapped, not letting any of the pain show. “Stop babying me!”

There was a cracking noise from Chiba’s phone, but it only lasted for a second. Oops. Hopefully, it will be fine. “...Alright. Get out your reading for today.”

He had a feeling he was going to regret his decision before the lesson even started. The next three hours proved him more than right, and he was certain Koro-sensei was doing it on purpose.  
  
The scratching of the chalkboard, the extra-loud voice, the incessant questions for him. All of it. By the time lunch rolled around, his head was pounding, and his stomach was twisting so bad he wished he would go ahead and pass out. “Karma, are you ready to go rest?”

Oh, he was beyond ready for a rest! He just couldn’t even move! “Karma? Karma? Karma~?”

He looked up at the octopus, vision blurry not from the concussion but instead from his tears, and threw up over his robes. In his defense, it wasn’t like he was aiming to vomit over him, it just kind of… happened. Not that he minded it happening then too much.

The class was staring by then, some mouths agape and others’ hands covering barely-concealed snickers. Koro-sensei blinked, face white and mouth a thin line. “...I’ll go get Karasuma-sensei. Try not to get sick again.”

Nagisa was over to his side quick enough, Karma still trembling from the sick. At least he had enough sense not to start talking. He just pulled a tissue out of his pocket to wipe at his face. Nagisa was too kind. Was it like this before Karma ran away? He couldn’t remember too well right now. “Mmm…”

“Serves Sensei right. He knew he was making you sick,” Nagisa muttered under his breath. “Now you better get yourself better, alright? No being stubborn.”

“Yes, Mama….” Karma teased, though it didn’t come out as well as he would have liked. His belly was starting to feel less queasy, but now he was hungry. He should probably wait to eat, though. He didn’t want to vomit on Karasuma-sensei. He wouldn’t look as hot with vomit all over him.

Nagisa choked on his breath, face turning red. Was he alright? “Na… Nagi…?”

“Sorry, Karma. Did that hurt your head?” Why wouldn’t he look him in the eye now? Did he do something wrong? Before he could respond, someone else was kneeling next to him.

“Ready to go, kid?” Karasuma spoke softly, placing his hand on his own. “The woman at the second address of your file picked up. I couldn’t get hold of your father. Where do you want to go?”

“Two.” The woman must have been Mrs. Asano. She was friendly and predictable, though he was surprised she answered the phone. He raised his arms, staring up at the agent expectantly. Karasuma’s gaze softened, and he bent over to let Karma latch onto him.

“Alright. Let’s get you home.” Karma rested his head against the crook of Karasuma’s neck, finally allowing his eyes to close. Karasuma was safe. He was safe.

  


* * *

“Thank you for bringing him home! The poor thing looks positively exhausted!” He jolted in alarm, the arms still holding him firmly. “Oh, he’s awake!”

“Karma, do you want me to put you down?” Ah, that was Karasuma-Sensei. He clung tighter, a weak apology for the way he woke up.

“Why don’t you just lay him on the couch?” Mrs. Asano clapped her hands together, “Would you like some tea? I’m sure Karma would be willing to share from his collection.”

“I’m afraid that I must get going. I have to return before the end of lunch.” Karasuma sat him down on the couch. Oh, it was the plush one! Comfy. “I advise him to stay home and rest for the next few days. He’s well ahead of the class, so there shouldn’t be an issue in catching him up on anything.”

“I’ll make sure to tell my husband and his father.” He could practically feel her smile. She was probably happy to have someone at home with her, considering she couldn’t go out. “Thank you once again for getting him here safely. I’m surprised he trusted you enough to let you bring him while he slept.”

“Considering how tired he was, I doubt he could have stayed awake if he wanted to.” Karasuma hummed, bowing slightly. “Thank you for taking care of him. Goodbye, Karma.”

“Bye, bye, Sensei.” He laid himself down with a yawn, curling up against one of the pillows. A few more footsteps creaked on the floorboards, and the door closed with a click. Silence. Sweet, blissful silence.

A weight settled on the couch by his feet. “Really, Karma? You got scared by an animal and fell off a cliff? That was the excuse you came up with?”

“What did you want me to say? That I got in a fight with an oni and a kitsune? That wouldn’t sound suspicious at all. ” He would have rolled his eyes if he didn’t know it would hurt. The woman pursed her lips.  
  
“I suppose you’re right.” She nodded after a while. “A kitsune and an oni… I wasn’t aware either were living on the mountain.”

“Neither was I, but I suppose there are always surprises.” Especially when Gakuhou was involved. “I’m tired.”

“Of course. Go to sleep, I’ll check in with Gakuhou about what’s going on.” She hummed to herself. “Maybe Gakushuu noticed something as well? Those two always are too prideful to ask me. As a wife and mother, it’s my job to protect them...”

Was Karma included in that? Probably not. She liked him enough, sure, but he knew he was nowhere near having the love that he would as her child. He was just her husband’s student, a student he unwillingly took at that, nothing more than a filthy leech.

Karma didn’t mind being a leech too much.

At least that meant he was surviving.

And with that, he closed his eyes and drifted off into peaceful oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: There will NO shipping of Karasuma and Karma. Karma just has a very slight crush, like less than Kurahashi. The actual reason for this and his preference for Karasuma (and discomfort with Koro-sensei) will come into play later. The Dresden Files does have some elements of the 'teacher' considering a teacher/student relationship (I haven't read the latest two books, so I don't know if it actually ends up happening), so I just wanted to make it clear that that will not happen here.
> 
> Besides that, I just wanted to say sorry for the later update! The next one should hopefully come out faster (I have no set update time) since I actually have a plan for it.
> 
> Thank you for reading! :)


	4. Y Fampir Teg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***!!!Warning!!!***  
> Please note the tag updates!  
> There is implied sexual abuse in this chapter (and likely in future ones). Nothing explicit, but please be careful while reading. I changed the rating from T to M just in case.
> 
> Note:  
> Some of the dialogue is taken from the anime.

“Accidents happen while training, Akabane.” The man’s voice was cold. Was he talking to him? He couldn’t see with the bag over his head. “You want us to put a five-year-old, your son, under the Doom of Damocles over an accident?”

“He attempted to break the first law of magic.” What was that? Magic had separate laws? “I would be biased to ignore it just because he’s my flesh and blood. Would you not report your son if he broke one, Asano?”

Karma trembled under the weight of the air. What was even going on? “I can assure you that my integrity is intact, which is why I can’t agree to inflict this punishment on a child.”

“I agree with Asano. It wasn’t necessary to gather us all here for something that you should have dealt with at home.” A woman’s voice. “I’m sure you could have given him a more appropriate punishment at home.”

Papa was going to be angry. He didn’t like it when people questioned him. 

“How about we talk to the child first?” The first man, Asano, was talking again.

“Remove the hood.” The woman commanded. That was a good thing. Right? Tal-?

His head snapped back as it was pulled off without a care, cutting off his thoughts. “Huh, he really does look like his mother. Except for the eyes.”

“He got her issues, too.” His father scoffed. He hadn’t liked his mother that much. Karma could remember that. He also didn’t like Karma, but neither did Mama, at least according to Papa. People didn’t like Karma. “He’s going to turn out the same way, and you know it. He’s going to be a criminal.”

“Now, now, I’m sure that’s not true.” The woman hummed, looking him over before kneeling. “Hello, I’m Ms. Ishii. What’s your name?”

He looked up at his father, earning a curt nod. “Karma. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Oh, I can see someone has manners. Now, do you know why you’re here?” She smiled. Fake. It was all fake, her eyes too dull.

“I got angry and hurt Papa.” He sniffled a bit at the end. Sure, he had been angry, but he didn’t really want to hurt him. Right? “I was bad.”

“Why did you get angry with your Papa?” He wasn’t stupid enough to answer that question. He was five, not a baby! They stayed there for a minute, them waiting for an answer and Karma refusing to give one.

“He got frustrated with a spell and lashed out when I tried to correct him.” His father butted in, Karma nodding in agreement. That was pretty much what happened. Papa just hadn’t been… hadn’t been very nice at the moment.

“Ah, so he lashes out when he has difficulty? That does remind me of Tori.” Ishii’s eyes finally left him. “With such potential… I could see how that would be a problem given a few years.

“I have a proposition to make,” Asano announced, walking over to the middle. He looked kind of like Mama, but with orange-brown hair and purple eyes. That, and he was a man. Those eyes were pretty. “My son is the same age as Karma, and I think it would do them both some good to have some joint training or study sessions.”

“You want me to punish him with a sleepover?” Papa didn’t seem to like that idea.

“It would allow me to figure out how he learns best. If you knew that, it would reduce his… ahem, explosive tendencies.” The two adults were staring each other down. Karma didn’t like that.

“I’ll be good for Papa!” He blurted out, quickly averting his eyes with a whimper. “S-sorry.”

“...If he doesn’t show any improvements by the end of the school year, we end it.” His father backed down. He still didn’t seem happy about it. “I also want him on breaks.”

“Of course.”

* * *

“Have a good day at school, Shuuey.” Gakushuu’s mother kissed her son on the cheek. “Karma, dear, I’ll see you on Friday.”

“Yeah. See you then.” He couldn’t look at them, not when he knew what he was going to come home to that afternoon. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

With that, he sped walked to the sidewalk, turning in the opposite direction of the school. He couldn’t go the same way as Gakushuu. That would be suspicious. Karma did not want to deal with the school knowing they even knew each other, much less that he lived at the other’s house on weekends. Gakushuu probably felt the same way.

The Asano’s neighborhood was nice. It had long, winding sidewalks around huge houses with bushes trimmed into animals and roses and ivy wrapping around their walls. He didn’t have to be so on-guard here, alert, yes, but not on guard.

Karma didn’t think he could willingly not be alert.

It was early enough that there wasn’t anyone else out. The windows were dark, and the curtains draped down. They were reasonable people, unlike the Asanos. Gakushuu and the principal both had an annoying obsession with getting to school early, meaning Karma had to get up too.

The houses started to get smaller. Manicured lawns slowly replaced the gardens of the Asano's neighborhood. One tree stood on each side of the walkway to keep them from looking too barren. Did any of his classmates live along this route? He should probably check that out.

His destination was a small park, the border between this neighborhood and the other… his. The metal swings were rusty, and the slide would give you scrapes if you tried to go down, the metal pieces bent and barely held together by nails. The people in this neighborhood wouldn’t dare allow their kids to play even near it, and parents in Karma’s didn’t want to risk paying for the infection a cut from there would result in.

It was the perfect place for Karma to stay on Monday mornings (or nights, when his home got to be too unbearable). That was more often than he would like to admit.

The swing creaked and bent under his weight, the chains squealing with each push.

He rose higher and higher, watching as the sun slowly rose over the tops of the apartments. Fingers cold and pale, he gripped them tighter, feeling the chains slacken once he started to get high enough. Perhaps if it was a bit sturdier, he could have flipped over the top. It would likely just snap if he managed to succeed. Better not to try.

Weightless as the chains slackened, he allowed himself to close his eyes. It was quiet enough that he could hear footsteps from a block away. Anyone approaching would make their presence known before they even knew he was here.

Eventually, the sun started to shine through his eyelids, cars rumbled down the cracked streets, and students began to walk by. The sound of wood chips crunching was a bit surprising, but he paid it no mind. “Hey, Karma!”

Isogai? His eyes snapped open, finding the teen in front of him. He stopped pumping his legs, allowing his feet to slide against the ground so he could slow down. He’d never seen the other boy on his way to school last year. “Eh, Isogai? Do you live around here?”

“Yeah, we just moved in before school started.” Isogai rubbed the back of his neck, averting his eyes. “Our old place was too expensive, especially with Kunugigaoka cutting my scholarship in half. I’m honestly surprised they didn’t cut it entirely.”

“That’s too bad, both things. Have you had any trouble with break-ins yet?” Karma hummed, jumping off to land next to Isogai once he got low enough. “Or any of that stuff?”

“We’ve just had a window broken, around when we first moved in.” Isogai frowned, starting to head towards the sidewalk. Karma followed, matching his pace. “We heard it was bad here, but is it really that bad?”

Karma winced. “You get used to it. Sort of. If you want, I could try something to prevent anything from happening to your house.”

“Y-you mean like, traps? I do have younger siblings.” The Ikeman’s frown deepened. He probably thought Karma was going to break in or something. Not that he could blame him. “We have security cameras.

“Magic.” Karma smiled, knowing the other wouldn’t believe him as he wiggled his fingers. “It serves well to be superstitious here. You should take up the offer.”

“I’ll sleep on it.” The two went silent, walking to the train station. The streets were starting to get busier, with more cars driving by and more people joining them on the sidewalk.

Much to Karma’s relief, the air between them having grown awkward, Kataoka and Maehara were waiting at the station. It was easy to slip away once the three started talking, and he got into the car a couple of doors down.

Four stops and one transfer later, and they were just a few blocks from the school.

Hopefully, it would just be an uneventful day. He’d have to deal with the octopus, and he was still upset about what he did last week, but that was a given. Maybe he’d even get to eat lunch with Nagisa today!

Hah, like a normal day would happen! He’d probably jinxed what little chance they had.

Karma frowned, watching the woman hang off of the octopus as if he was the next best thing since sliced bread. The rest of the class seemed to share the same sentiment, expressions of confusion and disgust across the room. “My name is Ms. Irina Jelavic! It’s nice to meet all of you!”

Oh, she was definitely an assassin. The class muttered amongst themselves, and Karma agreed with most of what they were saying, that her behavior was frankly disturbing. Except for Okajima’s thought of “It would be nice to meet her boobs.”

Ugh. Gross. Whether that or Jelavic’s continued cooing over Koro-sensei made him barf more was the question. Karasuma was talking now, maybe he should pay more attention. 

“She’s going to be your new English teacher and is very qualified. I hope that you all accept her as a new teacher.” The agent seemed to eye Koro-sensei at the last word. Whether that was because he was currently mooning over the woman or his past jealousy issues, Karma didn’t know. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

The latter, then. “Of course not, and I think Ms. Irina will be a wonderful addition!”

Was-was his face turning pink?! “You know, she really seems to like him!”

“I know, it’s kind of sweet!” Did they really think she truly liked him? He was a giant yellow octopus for crying out loud! Sure, there were some people that were… into… tentacles- but not this much! It was obvious she was an assassin and (successfully) trying to seduce him.

“Well, now that that’s settled, why don’t you all go outside while I explain to Ms. Irina what is going on here. And that includes you, Octopus.” Karasuma sighed, already heading towards the classroom door. “Ms. Irina, if you’ll follow me?”

“Aww, I’ll see you later, Squishy-goo!” What kind of pet name was that?! And second, how did Koro-sensei believe this?!

“G-goodbye, Ms. Irina.” And he was still blushing! “Class, how about we play a game of Pass and Kill? Does that sound like fun?”

“Anything’s fun when your life's on the line, Koro-sensei!” Karma snickered, getting up with the rest of the class and grabbing his gun.

“That’s the spirit, Karma!” Koro-sensei’s face turned striped, tentacles wiggling about. “But, I wouldn’t say my life's on the line since you guys can’t hit me!”

The red-head huffed at that, twirling his gun around his finger. “I got you on the first day, didn’t I?”

“Nuehh!” Koro-sensei wailed, the stripes disappearing. “That was embarrassing, Karma! Don’t make me remember!”

Karma just stuck out his tongue and joined the throng of his classmates in heading to the field. Sensei would get the soccer ball, so they didn’t figure out who would have to do what. Within seconds of them gathering around, Koro-sensei was in the middle and the ball was falling in front of Kimura. “Pass and kill!”

His classmates continued shouting, firing, swiping, and lunging. “Karma!”

His turn. He kicked the soccer ball, firing once it was at level with his arm. “Pass and kill!”

Koro-sensei easily dodged the bullet, as well as Okano’s swipe of her knives, when they were interrupted by the blonde. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything, Darling! Karasuma said that you could go Mach-20, and I’m just dying to see it with my own eyes. Do you think you could get me some Vietnamese coffee, just to tide me over after their lesson?”

“Well, uh, Karasuma may have been exaggerating on my part a little….” He was blushing again! Was he still falling for this?! “But, I do know a wonderful little cafe in Vietnam that would be perfect for this!”

Koro-sensei wasted no time in blasting off, just in time for the bell to ring. Still recovering from having to watch that exchange, which as a student, was incredibly awkward, Isogai rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, that’s the bell. Should we head back inside, Ms. Irina?”

“Whatever, just make it a study hall if you do. I’m not here to teach a bunch of brats.” She brought a cigarette up to her lips, lighting it and blowing out with a sneer. “Another thing, don’t call me ‘Ms.’ when the octopus isn’t around, and we are far from first name basis. If he is around, call me ‘Ms. Jelavic.”

Why did his classmates look so shocked? Especially Nagisa? He of all of them should know this was how adults were, and the other boy was so sensitive to this stuff. 

Karma was used to it. He knew it could be far worse. He should probably do something though if his classmates were going to keep their mouths shut. “Heh, what’s your game here, Ms. Jelabitch?”

“Hey, no nicknames!” She swung around. Ah, so she was easily provoked, just like Koro-sensei. This would be fun.

“It looks like we’ve got ourselves a real pro here!” He mocked, tilting his head back to look down at her. “Just so you know, those that have been playing the odds haven’t been doing so well. You’re not going to win without help.”

“Oh, sweetheart, adults have their own way of playing.” Her eyes narrowed at him before she turned around to face… Nagisa? “You’re Nagisa Shiota, Karasuma told me about you!”

She moved forward, quickly cupping Nagisa’s face and pulling him into a kiss. Karma watched with interest as his classmates let out aghast shouts. Why were they so upset? That was just another thing adults did. If anything, Nagisa wasn’t responding right!

Right?

By the time the woman pulled back, Nagisa’s face was flushed dark red and he looked… drained. Drained was the only way he could describe it, maybe exhausted would work too. That. That wasn’t normal. He narrowed his eyes at the teacher as she whispered something to Nagisa before turning around to meet his gaze with a knowing smirk.

He didn’t pay attention to what she was telling the class, too busy thinking about what he just saw. It made sense, but he couldn’t see how the principal was allowing it to happen. He had control over who came to teach here. Did the man not care about their safety at all? For him to let a white court vampire in, probably not.

This would be interesting to see. If she didn’t drain them all, of course. He wondered if Koro-sensei had felt any of the effects.

“Get in the way, and you die.” Change the probably to a definitely. He should go check on Nagisa, he had just gotten the first hit after all.

“Yo, are you okay?” He frowned, holding out a hand for the downed boy. “You look like that time I snuck wasabi into your breakfast.”

“Y-yeah, just, ah shocked.” Nagisa allowed himself to be pulled up before wiping his face again. “Is it appropriate for her to be doing that? Even if she is an assassin? An adult kissing students, that’s gross, and not to mention illegal! Then again, I don’t think she cares about legalities.”

“That’s just how adults are, I don’t see how you got so wiped from that.” Karma shrugged. Sure, Nagisa was drained, but why was he reacting to what happened, rather than how he felt. “We had Ono-sensei, and you have your mother.”

Nagisa stared at him for a moment, mouth opening and closing for a bit before the words came out. “Wh-why would…? Gah! And, I told you not to talk about my mother!”

“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” That had been a while ago. He’d need to note that. Sure, he liked to tease the boy, but even he knew everyone had lines that shouldn’t be crossed. “Do you want to head inside now? It looks like they’re going to be a while.”

“Yeah. I’ll have to study extra hard in English now if she’s not going to teach.” Nagisa sighed. “Exams are going to suck!”

“Maybe you could get Koro-sensei to tutor you after school?” Karma suggested, starting up the steps. “I doubt he would mind.”

“True, but I don’t want to make her upset if she finds out.”

“Don’t worry about it, besides, I doubt she’ll last past the day working here.” He scoffed. “You can tell she’s not used to being around kids, even more than Karasuma!”

“I guess you’re right. I just really want to do well on exams.” They squeezed through the door together. A few of the others had started to come inside as well, floorboards creaking and squeaking.

Just as they were about to enter the classroom, Nagisa froze. “I-I guess I should go to the teacher’s lounge and wait for her there.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” He didn’t like the idea of Nagisa getting drained completely. “It’s not like I was going to study, anyways.”

“It’s alright. Karasuma will be in there.” Nagisa still looked unsure, eyes averted. “I doubt he’d tolerate her trying anything.”

“If you’re sure.” That was true. “I’ll see you during PE then?”

“Yeah, see you.” Nagisa hunched over and trudged down the hall. He’d be fine, hopefully. Karma figured that and stepped into the classroom and plopped down at his desk.

It didn’t take long for Nagisa to get back, or for the period to be over. The only thing the woman had done was try to get them to say her name right. Like it was that they couldn’t say -vitch. Needless to say, the correction hadn’t stuck.

Karasuma had noticed their irritation when he came to pick them up for PE, giving the blonde a disappointed frown. “I thought I told you it was in your best interests to teach them, at least for your cover. The octopus could have popped in at any moment and it would have been blown.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m going to make sure everything is all set up.” Irina waved him off and stalked out of the classroom. Karasuma turned to look at them with a brief wince.

“Everyone, please go get into your PE uniforms. We’ll talk more outside.” Not one person grumbled, just happy to do something other than sit in silence. Karma hadn’t minded as much as some of his classmates, content to just sit there and think. However, he knew some of the others were getting antsy by the first ten minutes.

He didn’t bother going to get on his uniform, instead just staying at his desk. The agent gave him a frown once everyone left. “Karma? It’s time for PE.”

“She’s going to execute her assassination attempt, you know we aren’t going to get anything done.” He pointed out. “There’s no point in getting changed for that. I want to watch it go down.”

“The point is that you are interacting with your classmates in a team effort.” Karasuma countered with a pointed look. “And don’t interfere with her plan. I honestly don’t trust her enough to take the contract of no-harm-to-the-students seriously.”

Golden eyes rolled practically backward. “She’s using metal bullets, Sensei. She was muttering about it during class. It’s not going to work anyways.”

“Metal... ?” Karasuma swore under his breath. “I told her….”

“I’m gonna go watch now. It’s going to be amusing.” He drawled, standing up and stretching. No other reason behind it. If he was lucky, he’d get to tell how effective her feedings were on the octopus. Could she even drain him? If he wasn’t human? Well, he’d find out!

“Fine. Just don’t get hurt by any stray bullets.” Poor Sensei. “Metal bullets… seriously…?!”

It was easy to find a good place. The building was old, and plenty of small holes had rotted through the wood. He just nuzzled himself against the wall, eye peering through. Koro-sensei had already arrived with Irina’s tea, sliding into the shack with a pink blush. Was he really falling for it? Or was it an effect of her powers?

The assassination was in ef- why did he want to watch this? This couldn’t possibly be the way she seduced people! She wasn’t even trying to kiss him, just shaking her- you know what. No. He didn’t want to see anymore. But, he had to. He had to know if it worked.

Wait, she’d already disappeared around the corner, pretending to be shy. Any second now an-

The shack shook under the force of the bullets. Luckily, the only ones that made it through were at the wall adjacent to him. Koro-sensei was unaffected, of course. They were a dull brown and pointed, not the signature pink of the anti-sensei bullets.

There wasn’t any point in watching anymore. He knew that part of the assassination had failed, and it looked like she wasn’t going to try the other way. Leaning back with a hum, he decided to enjoy the shade, even if the continuing sound of machine-gun fire was still ringing through the air. Not like the noise bothered him much.

“Well, that was a bust!” Karma laughed, plopping next to Nagisa with a carton of strawberry milk. “I can’t believe she actually ignored the anti-sensei material requirement! I mean, really? All that planning- and she left out the single most important detail!”

“It is pretty funny.” Nagisa snickered. “I feel a little bad though. You have everyone calling her just Ms. Bitch now. At least Jelabitch sounded similar enough!”

“Eh, it would be no fun to not annoy her!” He smiled serenely. “Besides, I know that you guys didn’t treat Yukimura-Sensei much better, and I wasn’t even here to instigate it! And she quit!”

“I mean… you aren’t wrong.” His friend’s smile faltered. “We weren’t even trying to be that mean. She was a good teacher. We just weren’t… you know.”

“Yeah. I know.” Honestly, if it weren’t for this assassination stuff, Karma doubted he’d be doing much better than they had been. 

They sat in silence, Nagisa eating sushi and Karma stealing bites of rice. He’d have to steal something from the teacher’s lounge later, but not just for the food.

Irina’s tactics hadn’t worked on the octopus, her vampire tactics, that is. That was both a plus in that she couldn’t be the one to kill him, but it also meant that he couldn’t use it in any of his plans. Bummer. Besides the assassination, he knew she knew who he was and that she knew he knew who she was. That could spell trouble, and Karma wanted to know how much.

“I think I’m going to skip class today and head home early.” Nagisa was well accustomed to Karma not bringing any food on Mondays. Mrs. Asano had never offered, and Karma wasn’t going to go through the awkward ordeal of taking her food to make his own while she made her son’s lunch. She didn’t need to know his father had stopped sending him with money on the first day of middle school.

“Karma, you know you shouldn’t skip.” And he knew Karma would ignore that. Their interactions were simple.

The bell rang, and he smiled with closed eyes. “Ne, I think I should.”

“You won’t skip school tomorrow, right?” Blue eyes turned serious. Karma hated when they did that. “You missed all of last week because you were injured. Your absences aren’t going to be ignored by the chairman anymore, you know.”

“I’ll be here tomorrow. I promise.” That was one he could keep. “Welp, are you going to be a goody-two-shoes and head onto class while I pester Ms. Bitch and eat? I wonder if she brought any food.”

“I think I’ll be a goody-two-shoes, as you say.” Good. Karma put on a fake pout.

“Fine~ You’re no fun.”

He clambered up to his feet. “I’m gonna go run and grab my bag. See you tomorrow!”

“So, wizard-brat. What do you want?” She smirked, Karasuma having headed out to write up a report about the failed attempt. “I know you were watching today.”

“And I know you, Ms. White Court, that you didn’t even try using your powers at all.” He wasn’t miffed, not at all. “It was quite pathetic if you ask me.”

“I can’t feed on him enough to actually affect him. Too much emotion, too much energy” She shrugged, watching as he took another bite of cup-noodles. “And I’m not going to try and kill him straight away. Bigger things are going on at the moment, or are you not aware?”

“Bigger things than the fate of the earth?” Was she just playing with him?

“Relax, kid. It’s just a joke.” Why did he feel like that was a lie? “Now that you know I can’t feed on him, explain to me how you manage to feed on… that. And don’t try and tell me it tastes good! It hasn’t been that long since I lived as a human. There’s even some of the octopus’s food in the fridge!”

“...Karasuma-sensei likes them,” Karma mumbled. She was changing the subject. “I don’t trust the octopus.”

“Good choice on the latter, but you’re eating cup-noodles because Karasuma likes them?” She frowned for a moment before regaining her smirk, this time more devious than before. “Oh~! Someone has a crush~!”

Now he was blushing! This was embarrassing! “No, I don’t! Karasuma-sensei is just, uh, cool!”

“Lies lies. I’ve seen it all before.” She waved off his protests. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be much more fun to watch you stumble all over yourself around him. The poor man won’t even have a clue!”

“I want to change the subject.” The. Blush. Was. Not. Going. Down.

“Fine. I assume you want to know your classmates are going to be safe around me.” Her eyes turned serious. “I have side jobs arranged for when I need food. Draining your classmates is not on my to-do list, and besides, kids are a big no-no. I only drained Shiota earlier to get your attention.”

“Nagisa doesn’t go by his last name. He also didn’t like the kiss.” Why did he say the second part? “And why not just drain me instead?”

“I’ll apologize to him tomorrow. And I think we both know how you would have reacted to me draining you, wizard-baby.”

He took a last slurp of the noodles and nodded. Yeah. They did.

“You still don’t trust me, do you.” That wasn’t a question, and they both knew it.

He stood up and tossed the can into the trash can. “I don’t think you need the answer to that.”

“I think I have the same answer for you.” Their eyes narrowed at each other. “But you know that.”

“Yep. See you, Ms. Bitch.”

It was time to head home now.

Time to think about some things. Like, what Irina was talking about being bigger than the fate of the planet.

Time to do fun wizard-things.

Yeah.

Fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: The next chapter should come out sooner! :) :) :)  
> The chapter: *Just keeps getting longer*  
> Me: *starts projecting slightly* Oh no.  
> Me: Well, that was a lie.
> 
> On the other hand, the chapters should now be following more along the canon timeline, which is nice.
> 
> Dresden Files Note:  
> There are four vampire groups in the book series, the white, red, black, and jade courts (the last is more of a brief mention). The white court feeds off of emotions rather than blood.
> 
> Note on the abuse:  
> Unfortunately, a lot of children (as you can see with Karma), especially when it starts early, don't recognize abuse as abuse, or think along the lines of that 'oh, it could be worse,' 'it's not that bad.' Or, in many cases, are too scared of what will happen if they report and nothing actually happens (will it get worse/what if the abuser learns they can get away with it), or are manipulated into not telling anyone. Karma is thinking along the lines of 'at least I'm not being abused with magic,' and it started early enough that he things anything not involving that is normal/okay.


	5. Y Gwenwyn Lafant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive!  
> Warning: There is implications to child abuse/neglect via withholding food in this chapter

“Hello, Sweetheart, I’m Asano Katsumi! You can call me Mrs. Asano.” The woman bent down, long hair cascading down over her shoulders as she smiled brightly. “What is your name?”

“A-Akabane Karma.” He stepped back slightly, making her smile falter. Oh, no. He’d made her sad. What would fix it? “Hug?”

The smile returned at that, just like it was supposed to. “Of course! You can have a hug. Poor baby, you’re probably pretty scared of having to be away from your parents, aren’t you!”

“Mama is dead, and Papa doesn’t like me.” He stated bluntly as she started to wrap her arms around him. She stiffened, not responding for a bit until she pulled back with a tense smile.

“O-oh. I’m sure your Papa likes you.” Karma doubted that was true. “All parents love their children.”

Gakuhou cleared his throat from behind him, a hand coming to rest on his shoulder. “How about we go inside so he can meet Gakushuu? Besides, I’m sure they’re both getting hungry.”

As if on cue, Karma’s stomach growled, and a blush lit up his face.

“It seems like you’re right, Dear.” They both laughed, only making him turn redder. “Do you like Yakisoba, Karma?”

“Mmm-hmm.” Gakuhou guided him into the house.

The really, really, really big house! Karma was pretty sure this room was the same size as his entire house! There was even a big shiny thing hanging from the ceiling! “Wow! What’s that thing?”

“That’s a chandelier, and I think you’d enjoy the etiquette lessons I give Gakushuu.” She looked up at her husband with a whisper. “He’s not going to influence Gakushuu, is he? He seems a little, you know, uncouth.”

“What’s un-tooth?” Karma blinked. He still had all his baby teeth. He was supposed to have them. Right? Maybe they just hadn’t seen them yet?

“Nothing, Karma.” Mr. Asano gave his wife a pointed look. “We just think you’ll enjoy some lessons we give our son that doesn’t involve magic. It’ll also teach you about some of the stuff we have around the house. The shiny and pretty ones.”

“Can I touch them then?”

“...We’ll see.” Was that a bad thing to ask? They took a couple of turns through the hall. How did a house have so many rooms? What were they even fo-?! 

Oh! Was that a vase? It had so many shiny colors! “Karma, how about we keep our hands behind our backs for now?”

He calmed his hands together behind him, fingers wiggling between each other. 

Finally, they turned into what looked like a child’s room. It was much less elaborate than the rest of the house, with the paint calm colors and the furniture much more soft and smooth looking. Child-friendly. “Gakushuu, can you stop reading your book for a minute?”

A blonde-haired boy looked up at him with Amethyst eyes. Like Mr. Asano’s. “Mama, we have a guest?”

“Yes, dear. Can you introduce yourself? For me?” Mr. Asano pushed him closer to the other boy, watching as he stood up and put the book down.

“Hello, my name is Asano Gakushuu, and I am five years old.” Gakushuu was a little bit taller than him, Karma’s eyes at his nose. “What is your name?”

“Karma.” He blinked. “Can I touch them? They’re pretty!”

“Wh-what?” Gakushuu took a step back, one eyebrow up in confusion.

“Your ey-!” He started to reach forward.

“Karma, if you try to touch Gakushuu’s eyes, you’re going back home and won’t get to learn about the shiny stuff.” And his hands were being pulled back again. Boo. “Just… just keep your hands back here, okay?”

“...Okay.”

* * *

Karma, of course, did not head home, at least not immediately. “Yo, Mr. Asano.”

“Akabane, I believe you’re supposed to be in class right now.” The man looked up from his laptop with exasperation, quickly shutting it and putting it into a drawer. “Don’t think I won’t suspend you again for skipping.”

“Why did you let a white court vampire in as a teacher?” Yeah, like he’d be suspended for skipping. If Asano was going to do that, Karma would have been expelled before the midterms of his first year. “Don’t act like you didn’t know.”

“...To not do so would be discrimination. Would I, a school teacher, ever discriminate against my students or staff?” Karma wished the man would learn to use sarcasm. “Did you have any problems with her?”

“Mr. Asano, you have me and the rest of my class go to school in a shack on the top of a mountain.” He deadpanned. “So, yes, I do think you would. And she briefly fed on a student, though she says it won’t be happening again.”

“Mmm, I fail to see the problem then.” Insufferable. “If that’s your only complaint, I believe you should head back to class.”

“She said there’s something bigger going on than Koro-sensei destroying the Earth.” Gakuhou froze. Ha! He got him! “You know something about it! You letting her teach has something to do with it!”

“It’s none of your concern.” Gakuhou stood up with a sigh. “It’s time for you to go back to class.”

“She wouldn’t tell me anything either, which means it’s important!” Karma snapped, stomping his foot on the floor. “I don’t want to go back before you tell me wh-!”

“Watch your tone, Akabane.” His mouth snapped shut. Mr. Asano never raised his voice, and calling him by his last name was never a good sign. The principal stalked forward, bending over so that he was just above eye-level. “I told you to drop the subject. Now, are you going to listen to me, or are you going to keep acting like a child?”

“S-sorry, Sir.” Karma swallowed, stomach clenching with anxiety. He couldn’t bring his eyes from the floor. 

He’d messed up. He’d messed up badly.

“Clearly.” A hand gripped his shoulder with a squeeze. 

Karma hated that. He hated it so much.

And that was why he was doing it.

“My apologies, Sir.” He was going to be sick. “I’m listening.”

“Good.” The hand dropped, but the anxiety didn’t lessen. “Clean your face up.”

He licked his lips, salt hitting his tongue. Ah, so he was crying. Pathetic. Mr. Asano pressed a tissue into his hand to wipe at his eyes and nose. He sniffled a little and wiped away the snot once his eyes were dry, dropping the tissue into the trash can.

“I need you to listen to me on this: Do not go looking into this,” Gakuhou stated firmly, earning a nod. “This goes beyond you. If you force yourself in, it won’t be just you getting hurt. Do you understand me, Akabane?”

“Yes, Sir.” His hands were trembling. “Can I go now?”

“Yes.” Karma stumbled to his feet, just about to reach the door, when Asano called out, “Will I hear you’ve attended your classes at the end of the week?”

“Yes, Sir.” And then he was out.

  
“Papa, I’m home!” Karma called out, pausing at the door to wait for a response. It didn’t take long for his father’s heavy footsteps to creak through the floor. Was he angry? They were coming fast but not stomping.

“You’re early.” His dark eyes bored into him from the top of the basement staircase.

“I got down the mountain fast enough to catch an earlier train.” Karma shrugged. Lying came easy. He didn’t know whether he had to blame himself or Gakuhou’s teachings for that.

“I’m surprised you came back, considering you spent all last week with Asano.” The man spat out the name, and Karma flinched, watching as he moved forward.

“I’m sorry, Papa.” He bowed his head. “I had a concussion, and my teacher brought me there. I didn’t want to interrupt your work with me being ill. I should have tried harder in trying to reach you.”

“I know you had a concussion. How did you get it?” Karma swallowed. Answering this did not bode well, and he couldn’t lie. What if Gakuhou had told him what happened?

“I fell while fighting.” Short and simple.

“Ah, so something we can fix!” Not good. Not good. “I suppose I have been slacking off on training you in the physical elements, haven’t I?”

“No, Papa. It was my fault I fell.” His father smiled at him, grin malicious and sharp teeth bared. “I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings as you taught me to.”

“Ah, but you should have been doing it instinctively. You say I taught you to pay attention, but you didn’t. It’s a failure on my part.” The man was in his face now, hot breath burning his eyes and nose. Garlic. Yuck.

“Th-that’s not what I meant!” He should have known better than to say that.

“So, you’re saying it’s my fault?! My fault that you messed up so bad?! After everything I’ve done for you?!” A fist landed next to the side of his head, and his eyes squeezed shut. He’d hurt Papa’s feelings. He hadn’t meant to.

Then again, hurting people was what Karma was good at.

“I’m sorry!” He really didn’t mean to! “I’m sorry, Papa. I’ll do better next time!”

“Don’t tell me! Show me!” The next fist hit his stomach, making him double over into his father’s chest. This was his fault. All his fault. “Weak. I expect you to be ready for training in ten minutes.”

Karma didn’t move until he headed down into the basement, waiting for the floorboards to stop creaking.

Nauseated, he forced himself to walk to the bathroom. It’s not like there was much he could do. He could wash his face and change his clothes, but he wouldn’t dare try to heal anything. Not before the training was over.

What was the point in healing a punishment he deserved? Besides, he didn’t want to hurt Papa anymore than he already had. He didn’t have the right to the tears leaking down his face. Papa didn’t cry- he was stronger than Karma.

He gripped the washcloth in his fist and scrubbed it against his face. So what if the skin turned red and raw? The tears were gone, and that was what mattered. He could fix the other later. Papa always made sure he had enough skincare and makeup. He liked it when Karma looked pretty.

Karma sometimes wished he didn’t.

“No, no, no. Your fault. This is your fault.” He dried his face off with a mutter. He shouldn’t blame Papa. “Weak.”

Deep breath in, deep breath out. Karma would do better if he calmed down. Should he change his clothes? No. He was running out of time. Besides, if he got in another fight, it’s not like he’d be wearing anything else. Why train in loose shorts when he’d be in restrictive slacks?

Time to go before he was late. He had to move. 

Just, one step at a time.

He stepped on the sides of the stairs to keep them from creaking, hating the way it scraped at his ears. Papa was waiting in the center of the room, a matchbox in his hands. The candles that lined the side of the room were already lit. So, they couldn’t be for that.

With a grimace, his eyes turned their attention to the coal pit in the room and the lack of the usual cauldron over it.

Of course. Should he have expected something else?

“Do you remember your word, Karma?” The match lit, the fire flickering in his father’s gaze.

“Of course, Papa.” The match dropped, and flames flew up from the pit.

Karma didn’t like fire. He swallowed the pit in his throat.

“Stand up here.” He up onto the stone, feeling it wobble under his feet. A hand pounded into the middle of his back, sending him tumbling forward toward the flames. “Start!”

“Arnofio!”

* * *

“Ne, Okuda? do you like Chemistry?” Karma tilted his head, looking at the girl reading across from him. Okuda sat to the left of him in class, but he hadn’t bothered to introduce himself yet. He was pretty sure he’d never seen her that absorbed into anything before.

Her head jolted up, eyes leaving the book she was reading. “Uh-uh, yeah. It’s my, ah, it’s my favorite subject.”

“That’s pretty cool.” Karma hummed. He was pretty good at potions and had a grasp on chemistry as well. “I like social studies the best, but science is great too.”

Chiba nodded in agreement while Hayami shrugged. “I just like social studies.”

Chiba started to open his mouth, turning to look at Okuda when suddenly all chaos broke out.

One second the class was quiet, groups just talking in a low hush, when all of the sudden Maehara, Mimura, and Okajima leaped from their seats, the stools clattering to the ground. The three shouted, clambering after the octopus- who was effortlessly dodging him.

A few other students not part of the attack started to yelp as well as they narrowly avoiding the swings of the trio’s knives and arms. “Oi! Watch it!”

It didn’t last long. Koro-sensei was far too fast in setting up the equipment for it to be a noticeable delay.

“They should know by now that that was too obvious. Am I right, Sensei?” Koro-sensei laid the last beaker next to him with a laugh.

“Alright, boys and girls! Let’s begin!”

Koro-sensei slithered to the front of the room, but Karma didn’t mind that. He’d already read over the lab procedures, and it was simple. No, he was watching Okuda.

She was staring intently at the book in front of her, and Karma knew it wasn’t anything to do with the lab. The girl was normally so nervous- watching Koro-sensei like he would yell at her for blinking when he was talking. Not now, though. And chemistry was her fav-?

Oh!

She had an assassination plan.

He squinted, trying to read what the chemicals on the page she was looking at were. It looked like some of them were the ones they were using for the experiment, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to sneak over the others.

“Alright, class, you may now send up one person from your group to go get your chemicals! Be careful!” Koro-sensei called out, finally letting them off to do the experiment.

“I’ll go up!” Karma hummed, already standing up. Being the first one up, it was easy to grab the ones the group needed and take the others once the throng formed. “Here we go!”

“Karma, I think you may have gr-?” Chiba spoke up with a confused frown.

“No, I didn’t.” He put a finger to his lips. “These are correct! Right, Okuda?”

“Y-yes. Thank you!” She smiled, taking them and sliding them under the desk. The two others hummed in realization, expressions stoic as ever. Karma wished that he could keep his face that still. Everything just always seemed to pour out. “Ah, I’m not- not sure how to do the lab and this at the same time.”

“We can cover for you!” Karma chirped. He, too, wanted to see how Koro-sensei would react to the chemicals. “You brought your pocky, right?”

“Yeah, ah, here you go! Thank you!” Her face blushed a light pink. She was happy, right? He was pretty sure she was. Was it because of him? Had he made her happy by helping?

That… that felt nice.

“It’s no problem!” He hummed, leaning over the table to take her materials. It’s not like the lab was even difficult. He just had to put in the right amount of the right stuff. Simple. Not to mention his group was quiet, so he didn’t feel the pressure to talk while working.

Working in silence, he took the time to observe his group members as he waited for the icing to come off of the stick. Okuda was still mixing her chemicals, the clear liquids turning a hot pink. Cool. It even blended in with their assignment. There were still two more vials next to her, so he doubted it would stay that way.

Chiba and Hayami though… how were they doing that?! Each stir, each drip, each pour- everything- was in sync. They weren’t even looking at each other, and he knew Chiba couldn’t see her by looking forward with those bangs! Oh, look, their icing coloring was even leaving the stick at the same rate now!

Was that cool? Or was it creepy? Both. Both sounded right.

Okajima met his eyes for a brief moment, the two sharing a look of disbelief. Karma quickly averted his gaze, very much not wanting to look into, out of all people, Okajima’s soul.

Forcing himself to look away from the in-sync snipers, he turned his attention back to Okuda. The once pink compound was now a bubbling, sickly yellow. Gross.

“Well, it looks like everyone is done with or finishing up with their lab! Good work, everyone!” Koro-sensei smiled at them- then again, he was almost always smiling. Did he sleep with a smile?

Okuda poured the last substance into the big beaker, and the bubbling came to a quick stop. It still looked pretty gross.

“And, if you guys don’t mind,” The octopus suddenly zoomed around the room, grabbing things off the tables. Had he noticed Okuda’s concoction? No, it was still there. Everything was, except for the-! “I’ll be taking the leftover samples, thank you!”

The octopus stood at the front of the room, tentacles full of everyone’s snacks that they brought, and then they were gone.

Not even a moment later and the class went into an uproar. Karma didn’t say anything, only wincing at the volume of their shouts. It’s not like throwing a fit would do anything, and Koro-sensei loved sweets far too much to give into it.

There was the scratching of a bench, barely audible with all the yelling, and there went Okuda rushing to the front of the room.

His classmates quickly fell quiet, giving the shy girl to blurt out what she was trying to say. “P-poison, Sir! I, uh, I’d like for you to drink it! Please!”

His classmates broke out into murmurs again, and Koro-sensei even appeared to be confused. “That’s ah, rather straightforward of you, Okuda.”

“I know! It’s just… it’s just, I’m not good with words. But, I’m good with chemistry!” She explained, the bottles shaking in her hands. “I put my heart and soul into these! So drink it, please!”

“Your heart and soul? Well, then I don’t mind if I do!” And down went the first beaker.

Koro-sensei’s body started to pulsate, his voice almost a growl as his body tensed.

Chairs clattered back, a couple of students jumping to their feet. Karma’s hand was gripping the side of the table. Was he going to attack? Was it going to kill him? By all logic, that shouldn’t be the reaction his body was having to the poison (Ha! As if logic mattered anymore).

He shook some more, body caving in on itself and the whispers growing louder.

And then, it stopped.

“Eh?!” They yelped, a few stifling laughs.

Instead of the usual yellow, smiling face was a blue, horned, and spiked head. He almost looked like some types of oni like that. Karma was not a fan of this look. Not one bit. “Sodium hydroxide! Very good, Okuda! If I were you, I would be in trouble!”

“Thank… thank you, Sir!”

“Would you like me to try the next?”

“Yes, please! Here you go…” Koro-sensei took the first vial and downed it in a single gulp.

His body seemed to pulse, the groans louder than before as his limbs flailed back. Karma’s grip on the table grew tighter and more students clamored to their feet with a shout.

And poof! He was a pastel green with wings and two tentacle-like horns. Like he had hands growing out of his face. Weird. At least it was better than him looking like an oni, even if he looked like some corrupted form of a western-style angel. 

That was too nice a comparison for something meant to destroy the world.

“Thallium acetate! Interesting!” Koro-sensei hummed, already bringing the final vial to his mouth. “Let’s see what the last one does!”

His reaction was almost the same as the other two. And, despite himself, Karma found himself letting his grip relax. They weren’t making him angry. It would be okay. What would the weird features be this time? Maybe more te-?

A pop and Koro-sensei’s face was completely blank.

Okay… weird.

“...It seems that they only affect my face.” Koro-sensei looked at them, voice oddly neutral. “Even if you come to hate me, please don’t hate assassination.”

“Where is that coming from?!” A boy shrieked.

“Ah, Okuda.” And now, he was back to normal. “While you did a splendid job, I cannot allow you to work with dangerous substances unsupervised.”

“Sorry, Sensei!” Okuda bowed her head.

“Because of that, I’d like to help you make a new one! Since I made a break period next because of the assembly, I was thinking we could do it now.”

Have the target give you instructions on how to kill them

That wasn’t suspicious. Not at all.

Ah, well, at least it meant he could take a nap next, considering Koro-sensei had stolen his food.

The nap didn’t last as long as he’d hoped, the hunger pains waking him up barely more than half an hour later. “Ow....”

Nagisa frowned at him as his stomach let out a long, painful growl. “Karma, are you hungry?”

“I’m fine.” Karma dismissed it, opting to not acknowledge the protesting noise of his stomach. “I think I’m going to go back to the classroom. Are you coming?”

“Yeah, I’m coming.” Nagisa didn’t drop the frown. “You know, I can always give you some of my lunch as a snack. I know you didn’t bring anything.”

“I brought Pocky! It’s not my fault Sensei took it!” Karma protested with a whine. “And you don’t need to give me anything. I’ll be fine. I’m used to it.”

“Just because you’re used to it doesn’t mean you should be,” Nagisa responded softly before dropping the subject, following him into the building. Karma liked that about him. He knew when to stop asking questions.

“You guys are coming already?” Ah, Kayano had stayed in the classroom. “I thought you would want to join one of the games?”

“Karma isn’t feeling too well,” Nagisa explained, making Karma flush with embarrassment. “I think he wants a nap.”

“You know me too well.” He mock-swooned, plopping down in his seat. “If I take a nap though, I’ll miss the poison show.”

“That’s right! I wonder what face he’ll make this time!” Sugino joined in the conversation, tossing a baseball up into the air and catching it. Ah, so he hadn’t found enough people to play baseball with him. Maybe Karma should have offered….

Nah.

“I don’t think he’ll be making just a face.” Karma hummed, earning two nods in agreement.

“I mean, it’s not like he’d actually give Okuda the potion to kill him, right?” Nagisa rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “There has to be something else behind it. I can’t think of what it could be!”

“Hopefully, it will give some information. Right?” Kayano fiddled with her hair.

“Yeah, it’s not like he’d do anything to hurt us!” Sugino reassured the trio. “Remember how he helped me with my baseball, Nagisa? It was a little scary, but nothing bad.”

“I guess you’re right.” Nagisa and Kayano both seemed to relax at that. If anything, Karma just felt nauseous- and not from hunger. He’d heard about the Terasaka-squad incidence. Was that a common thing? Karma didn’t like the idea of having a Mach-20 creature get that angry with him or Okuda.

“Don’t worry, Karma. I’m sure it will be fine.” Did he look upset? Nagisa was looking at him like he was. 

“Mmm, I know.” His stomach growled again, the gnawing growing worse. He glanced at the clock. It shouldn’t be long before everyone got back in, and then it would be time for the assembly.

Koro-sensei would be distracted then, probably sad he couldn’t go down to listen in. He could find the pocky then, in just… one hour. One hour too long.

“It looks like their game just ended.” Sugino hummed, prompting Karma to look out the window. “Do you think Koro-sensei is finished with helping Okuda?”

Before any of the other three could answer the question, said girl was bounding in with a beaker in hand. It seemed that she didn’t expect them to be in there either, seeing as she immediately froze up and blushed almost as red as his hair. “O-oh! I, uh, I didn’t….”

“What did Sensei have you make?” Karma interrupted, hoping to calm her down. “It looks kind of like the first poison from earlier.”

“Oh! It’s sodium fluoroacetate mixed with magnesium!” She relaxed a little bit, at least with her voice. Her body was tense, and her movements robotic and stiff as she continued towards her seat. “I’m hoping it works! I doubt I’ll be helpful with any of the other assassinations….”

“I’m sure it will work great!” Kayano smiled. “Besides, as long as we’re trying to kill him, we’re helping!”

“Th-thanks!”

The two girls fell into an easy conversation while Sugino started to talk to Nagisa about baseball. Karma allowed his eyes to close for a bit, not even bothering to open them when footsteps and other voices filled the room.

What was the point if the octopus wasn’t here? It wasn’t like any of the other students would try talking to him.

“Hello, class! Are you ready to get started?” His head snapped up to attention, eyes trained on Okuda as she ran to the front.

He had a bad feeling.

“Here it is, Sensei!” He could hear the smile on her face, free of trembles and wavers.

“Wonderful! Down it goes!” The class watched in anticipation as he drank it, and for a moment, nothing happened.

Koro-sensei’s body began to glow, wind gushing around them from the force of the vibrations. A few screams from those in the front, the ones getting the brunt of the wind. Not to mention poor Okuda, who was having to stand through this. His voice came out as a deep chuckle, booming through the classroom. “Thank you, Okuda!”

“H-huh?” Karma tried squinting to see her clearly, but all the dust flying around the room made it impossible.

“With this, I can transform into a new state of being!” The gusts grew stronger, his voice louder, and the glowing brighter.

“What… sensei?” Okuda seemed to take a step back, almost all the students yelling by that point.

Koro-sensei let out a final, powerful yell, amplifying everything before it all just… stopped.

There he sat, er, plopped, uh, whatever, was on the desk in the form of a big, grey slimy blob. “Phew…”

Careful to keep his expression muted, only allowing a confused frown, he watched as his classmates simultaneously shrieked, “He melted?!”

What was it that he reminded him of like this?

“No, class! I simply had Okuda mix up a solution that would increase the fluidity of my cells!” In the blink of an eye, he had disappeared, his voice now coming from the front of the room. “In this liquid form, I can fit into the tightest of spaces!”

“Ah, Sensei? Why are you in my desk?” Kataoka sweatdropped, irritation clear in her voice.

Koro-sensei didn’t bother answering the question, instead starting to blast around the room with a gloat. “Not to mention, I keep all of my speed!”

This time, Karma allowed himself to join his classmates in their panic. Heart ready to beat out of his chest and ears ringing, he leaped from his seat and drew his knife with a pale-knuckled grip. Had Okuda’s potion made him snap as well as power-up?!

Amid the chaos, Okuda cried out with hurt clear in her voice.“You tricked me, Koro-sensei!” 

Everything seemed to still as Koro-sensei settled in a ceiling corner. Nobody dared fire a weapon, too afraid of setting him off again.

“Communication is an important skill in assassination, as well as in science.” Koro-sensei’s usual smile returned, a few students mumbling questioningly at his statement. “No matter how good your poison is, if you cannot get the target to drink it, it might as well not be poisonous at all. If you go about it too naively, it could be used against you. For example, Nagisa, how would you go about giving me the poison?”

“Hmm, I would probably mix it into a sweet drink you like.” Nagisa mused. “Then I would offer it to you as a gift.”

“Very good. You see, Okuda?” Koro-sensei slid to the ground and back up into his robes. “Communication is the key to an effective poisoning. You need to understand your target, much as if you were explaining a scientific discovery to an audience of non-scientists. I thought the lesson would kill two birds with one stone: help you with communication to improve your assassination and scientific skills!”

“I-I see! Thank you, Koro-sensei!” Okuda smiled brightly, bowing as the rest of the class relaxed.

Karma couldn’t help but laugh, just trying to dispel the lingering anxiety in his chest. “We have a lot more to think about than assassination. Don’t we, Nuppeppo-Sensei?”

“N-Nuppeppo?!”

“Oi, where did the other brats go?” Irina stood above him, looking around the hill campus with confusion. Did Karasuma-sensei forget to tell her? Or did Mr. Asano not want her showing up to the assembly?

Well, just in case it was the latter:

“Going to the assembly that you’re supposed to be at.” He stifled a laugh as she paled. “Better catch up before the chairman comes for you.”

She didn’t even say anything to him before taking off down the hill with a shrill yell. “Wait for me!”

With a snort, he watched her disappear into the forest. Alas, his amusement couldn’t last for long.

“Karma, are you not going to the main campus with your classmates?” He jolted under the tentacle that landed on his shoulder. “I’ve been telling the chairman about how well you’ve done with attendance these past two weeks. Don’t tell me you’re going to start skipping again.”

“It’s pointless going down.” He shrugged the limb off. “All we do is get mocked the entire time, and they don’t even give us the information like the other classes.”

“You should still go for moral support.” Koro-sensei pressed. “You don’t get affected by the comments.”

Oh, how Karma wished that was true.

“Maybe I would have considered going down if you hadn’t stolen my lunch.” As if on cue, his stomach gurgled. “What do you want me to do, pass out in front of the school? Then again, I suppose that would get the attention off of everyone else.”

“...You only brought pocky for your lunch?” At least Koro-sensei had the decency to look guilty.

“The only convenience store on my way to school doubles their prices,” Karma mumbled. He wouldn’t bother mentioning he had to save his rationed lunch money from last week for it. “Can I go back to listening to my music?”

“Why don’t you come inside? I have something for you to do.” Wow. Okay. Great.

“Alright.”

Koro-sensei led him to the front of the room, disappeared for a second, and returned with the pocky bundled in his arms. Each one had one of his classmate’s names on it, with the top one being his. “Could you please put these on everyone’s desk? I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Karma nodded, already starting the task before Koro-sensei left the room. Should he mess with Terasaka’s box? Nah. He’d spare the burly boy. Besides, Sensei would return right when he was in the act.

He grabbed a few boxes, going back and forth between the desks and the front of the room, before getting to sit down with his own. Oh, it tasted good! Sure, not as good as his strawberry milk, but delicious nonetheless!

He was just about to finish off the box when a bowl of hot, creamy rice vegetable soup slid in front of him. Mouth agape, he looked up. “S-sensei?”

“Pocky isn’t a suitable lunch, so I made you something more filling!” Koro-sensei smiled proudly. “It’s a little hot, so you might want to wait a minute before trying it.”

“Th-thank you…” He just made him a meal?

“It was no trouble! After all, it’s my job as a teacher to make sure all my students are taken care of!” Koro-sensei ruffled his hair. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on your classmates!”

He took the first bite, savoring the taste.

He’d need to get the recipe for Mrs. Asano.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this is so late! 
> 
> I had no expectations for it to take this long. Unfortunately, it will probably be a while before the next update. I have finals coming up, and after that will (hopefully) be getting a second job, and will be dealing with visa (why are visas so expensive?), finding housing (same comment for the visa), and school stuff (Guess what: same comment for the visa) for next year.
> 
> On the bright side, I do have most of the chapters in the second season plotted out. So there's an actual plan for when we get there :)
> 
> Question: Is the line spacing on this okay? Or would you prefer them to be more spaced out?

**Author's Note:**

> The magic system in this is based around the Dresden Files series. I didn't tag it since I won't be using the characters from the series.  
> Thank you for reading! :)


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